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Pointing a laser at Regina’s police plane on Saturday has brought an endangering life charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, for a 62-year-old man.
Regina Police Service (RPS) said in a news release on May 25 that the man was charged after the force’s Aerial Support Unit was hit mid-flight while on patrol just before 10 p.m. on May 23.
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Police said pointing a laser at an aircraft not only poses a serious risk to those on board, it also endangers people on the ground if the plane should crash as a result.
RPS said officers on board the plane used its technology to quickly find the man, who was hiding behind an umbrella in the backyard of a home in the 2100 block of Francis Street in the Al Ritchie neighbourhood.
They then sent officers to the address where he was arrested and charged with mischief endangering life. He is scheduled to appear in Regina Provincial Court on June 24.
Police said that otherwise the plane handled nearly 50 calls for service over the weekend including being involved in helping make arrests for impaired driving, weapons offences, dangerous driving, a stolen vehicle and a robbery.
Regina’s police plane is a 2005 Cessna 182T outfitted with a wide-angle, infrared camera.
There are two ASU teams on the force, made up of a pilot, who is a trained RPS officer with a commercial pilot licence and two Tactical Flight Officers (TFO), who are also trained RPS officers and are responsible for monitoring the police radio, the camera technology and communicating with police units on the ground.
Each shift, the plane is operated by one pilot and one TFO, with a second TFO working in a patrol car as a backup if needed.
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